After a fair amount of debate, they decide to use the winches to rock the wreck from up above in the hope that this will frighten the polypod into leaving. Otherwise, it's unlikely to leave - Regina notes that it is in the most sheltered thing for a long way on the ocean floor. Dive figures out the best spot to hook the cable to the wreck, hoping to actually split it open under stress.

As they come back up, Whitney thinks that Regina smells like polypod. Regina is disturbed by being sniffed. No one else smells it as strongly, and no one else smells like polypod as far as Whitney can tell. They start up the winches and the shaking does in fact disturb the polypod enough to make it leave.

That work done, they start the salvage. They find the well-picked skeletons of the crew (in gillsuits) and a passenger (in a wetsuit), although they have all been seriously gnawed on by the polypod. Dive finds 200 mg of Long John in a crewman's locker and pockets it, while giving the 500 mg he finds in the wetsuit's pocket into the common treasury. They also find dive masks with hydrophones, but not on the crew - apparently they sank too fast to get them on and drowned.

The weapons locker is of particular interest, but strangely has already been opened... something has apparently dissolved the hinges and the lock mechanism. Inside are two spearguns, a nasty combat shotgun, and a disassembled white rifle. All are in good working condition after being cleaned.

Once they bring up the belt computers from the corpses, Jenny finds something else weird - all the computers are non-functional. Cracking one open, she finds that its insides have been dissolved away somehow. Two tiny holes are found in the exterior case of each computer, and each is similarly eaten inside. Jenny looks at the holes microscopically and finds them smooth to the limit of her vision. They bring up the main computer from the boat, which is similarly disfunctional.

The four crates, which were the point of the expedition, have clearly been unsealed neatly at some point. They waffle about until the next day about opening them again, but eventually decide to do so on the trip back. Inside are a couple of shoulder-mounted missile launchers in one crate, and about thirty missiles for same in the other three. The missiles are mostly AP anti-vehicle missiles, but one crate is of anti-personnel napalm missiles.

On the return to the cove, they give the crates to their alleged owners, who say they really shouldn't have to warn the group about the crates. They aren't pleased that they are opened but aren't going to push anything. A couple more jobs come up as well - Marcus wants "moulded plastics" transported to Haven, and a botanist, Marcia Willoughby, wants plants collected on Kauai. She asks to interview their staff biologist and will come up on 025:101. Jenny discovers that there are no references to a botanist of that name at HIST or anywhere else on the net.

024:101. Everyone has a day off in Atlantis, and is paid 150 Biogene spending money. Whitney gets it in Long John instead at her insistence. They go first to the Pit, where Whitney is bought drinks by a prospector and Pilot buys baggies of alcohol for later. They are able to procure 60 pills of "slumberall" for Jenny, a six months supply, but Steeg can't get the other two drugs. He suggests a doctor who doesn't ask too many questions.

Regina and Jenny go to the doctor's (Doc Johnson) and find him an amiable drunk who is willing to help once they give him a bottle of Steeg's special distillation. He will have to order Happcyd for Jenny (100 scrip/month), but the unpronounceable anti-psychotic drug will have to be specially made (at 500 for the first month and 200 for an additional month's supply). He figures out what it is and is disturbed that they have someone who needs it. He's also disturbed that that someone might suddenly find himself off it.

Back at the bar, Whitney is enjoying getting drunk with first the prospector (his story: Aborigines Stole my Long John!) and then the assistant bartender before Dive gets himself recognized. They end up once again retreating after the accolades get to be too much.